The Devils Son
by 1nf1n1t3
Summary: What if the reason for the attack on the Potters was a different one? What if the Prophecy was never made? What if Harry wasn't who everyone else thought he was?  If you want to find out, have fun with my story. - on hiatus
1. Proloque

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Summary: What if the Reason for the attack on the Potters was a different one? What if the Prophecy was never made? What if Harry wasn't who everyone else thought he was?  
If you want to find out, have fun with my story.

AN: While I like reading HP Fics, its getting very difficult to find something that wasn't already done to exhaustion, however I think that this story of mine might be something unique, at least I haven't found another one like it.  
This is my first attempt to write in online so I hope you forgive minor mistakes, and write me a Review or a simple Message if you find a major one.  
The Story will be M rated for safety since I don't want to worry if bad language, violence, abuse and mentions of sex or rape will exceed the T-rating, however I well not write explicit or graphic smut (since I have no experience in doing so) and there will be no slash.  
If you think you could write your own Fanfiction using my material I welcome you to do so, I would very much like to read it myself.

"speech"  
'thoughts'  
"**spells**"

**The Devils Son**

**Prologue**

She had to get away.

He had apparently left her alone doing who knows what after she passed out from the pain, and she wouldn't get another chance.

She was captured mere hours before, and she knew the only reason why she wasn't dead yet was because they wanted to use her to lure her husband James into a trap, and even that they could easily do without her alive.

No, the real reason she was still alive was because the Dark Lord saw something in her.

Something about her eyes and the colour of the killing curse he found so interesting.

Using all her self control to keep from screaming out she sat up on the bed and looked around in the room for something she could use to escape.

Her wand was probably gone forever, snapped when she was captured so that was not an option. After a moment of taking in the heavily decorated room with its green and golden colours, exactly what she would have expected of the Dark Lords private rooms, her eyes fell upon a sword on the wall. It looked like it had been used many times before, little dents on the edge and a brownish stain like it was never cleaned of the blood of its victims and while it was no wand it definitely looked like it could kill.

Slowly getting of the bed, and picking up a robe hanging over the chair next to bed she dressed herself, getting rid of the remaining scraps of clothing that where left after the Dark Lord was finished with her.

Stretching her body to get rid of some of the soreness she made her way over to the wall with the sword, to take it down and swing it around once to make sure that it wasn't a simple decoration.

She quickly disregarded the door as a possible way out. Even if he thought that she would be unconscious for longer than she was he would never leave the door without wards to alert him if someone tried to open it. And even if she were able to open the door from the inside she would be stuck with armed Death Eaters between her and a way out of the Mansion.

So she made her way to the window, trying to feel without a wand if it was warded. Her experience with charms and wards told her that there where indeed wards on the window, however nothing lethal on the way out.

He probably didn't want to get through the trouble of lifting the ward every time he sent an owl, so the lethal wards where all in the other direction, and while he would definitely know when she went through the window, maybe she would get away far enough to apparate.

Seeing that she was on the first floor and there was a small forest in view of the window, maybe two hundred feet out she made a quick decision.

Wasting no more time she opened the window, climbed out, and jumped the 10 feet down into the grass. Looking around once more to see if someone was watching what she recognised as the backside of a large mansion she started running toward the woods.

Just before she reached the woods she heard a shout coming from the building.

Picking up the pace she raced the final distance and vanished behind the trees. 5 minutes of running later she still couldn't apparate, however the shouts where coming closer and she had already spotted a broom in the sky, through they probably couldn't see her between the bushes anyway.

Suddenly she felt as if a weight was lifted of her shoulders and knew that she had reached the edge of the wards. Catching her breath she tried to calm herself down to gather enough control over her magic to apparate, when someone broke through the bushes behind her and screamed "there you are, bitch".

Lily turned around and threw the sword she still carried at her attacker, trying to impale the women she recognised as Bellatrix Lestrange, however she missed and the sword impaled itself on a tree to her left.

Bellatrix started laughing in what looked like an ugly grimace and asked "why you? Why did he take you when he never takes me?"

"Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you are stupid as hell and he finds no pleasure in taking something that belongs to him anyway, you ugly bitch" Lily returned with a forced smile finally gaining some breath and calm back.

"I will just kill you now, then, and maybe with a little Polyjuice and he will take me instead of you!"

Seeing the mad gleam in her eyes, Lily let go of the rest of her emotions.

"**Avada Kedavra!"**

With the green light racing towards her, Lily concentrated on her home and disappeared.

Seeing someone running in her direction the last thing she thought she had before she passed out was that no one would ever find out about what happened to her inside that room.

* * *

AN: I hope you liked it? The first (longer) chapter will be updated later today.  
Reviews, opinions, and critiques are very welcome, just write me your thoughts ;-)


	2. Childhood

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"speech"  
'thoughts'  
"**spells**"  
$parseltounge$

**Chapter 1: Childhood**

Harry Potter liked his name.

Just now the 6 year old boy sat in his classroom for his first lesson and the name 'Harry Potter' was the only one no one else answered to, so obviously it was his.

Harry Potter.

Not Freak, or Boy, or little Shit, but Harry Potter.

Of course he was thrown out of his musings when the Teacher asked him why he didn't answer the first time and that he would get punished next time he didn't pay attention to class, however such little things were of little matter to him.

After all he was only a scrawny little boy with straight black hair, unnaturally green eyes and a scar on his forehead that he got after his parents had a car accident when he was still a baby. At least his Uncle said so.

Harry was already used to everyone treating him like he shouldn't exist.

For example when the other children played and he had to do chores. Or when Dudley got to eat and he would starve, or when he got blamed for everything bad that happened to the Dursley's and beaten until he passed out. When the other children would get presents for their Birthdays and Christmas and laugh at him because he didn't.

The only reason he even knew when he was born was because last summer on the 31st of July his Uncle Vernon told him that only because it was his birthday he shouldn't expect special treatment and after that he beat him green and blue with his belt.

That night was the last time Harry had cried, and he swore he would never do so again.

And so Harry continued to listen to his teacher babble about the alphabet even through he had already learnt how to read in the public library, because that was one of the only places he was safe from his cousin's beatings.

After all he had sworn to himself that he would be the best. He would show all the others that he wasn't worthless, that he wasn't a freak. And the lesson continued.

* * *

Harry hated his life.

Oh, he showed them. He was the best, the highest score in the year. After months of studying he had felt good for the first time since he could remember, proud of what he had done.

Then he came home.

His uncle had beaten him until he passed out and then thrown him into the cupboard that was his 'room'. When he woke up a day later still sore from the injuries he was angry for the first time in years.

He had come to accept that his relatives hated him, however he honestly thought that they might acknowledge him if he showed them that he was not worthless.

How wrong he had been.

The moment they found out that he was doing better than their own son Dudley, even worse that he had the audacity to do well at all they accused him of cheating and making his cousin look bad.

And his anger rose. What had he ever done to them to deserve such a treatment from his relatives? All his anger and frustration started to boil over. Why? Why him?

*rumble*

*smash*

*splitter*

Suddenly he looked around himself and noticed that something was wrong.

The cupboard was shaking like there was an earthquake happening, things started to fly around and broke even through there was no reason for them to break.

The Boy was thrown out of his stupor when he heard a loud knocking on the door of his cupboard. "Boy, stop making such noise or I will come inside and make you regret it"

Fear filled Harry of what would happen if his Uncle dragged him out of the cupboard and all movement around him stopped.

"I'm sorry, Uncle Vernon, I slipped and fell, it will not happen again Uncle Vernon."

"Make sure it doesn't or you will regret it. No food for you today!"

"Yes Uncle Vernon."

Harry heard his Uncle walking away and let out the Breath he was holding.

'That was close' he thought, 'but what was that?'

Thinking about how it was possible for something like that to happen Harry started remembering things about his life.

The one time the Teachers hair had turned blue after Harry was angry at him, or the fact that his injuries were always healed after a night of rest, even the broken bones where the other children had to wear a cast for weeks.

After a while he came to the conclusion that all the things happened around him, so they must have something to do with him. Maybe that was why the Dursleys hated him and called him a freak? No, that couldn't be, how could they know that he was the cause for that when even he himself didn't know? No, they blamed him for everything, so of course they would be right about the few things he apparently really caused.

However how did these things happen? Normal people couldn't heal that fast or let things float and break like he did just now. He really was a freak!

Things started to shake again. 'No, calm down or Uncle Vernon will come again' he panicked and the shaking stopped.

'Hmm, if I can cause things without meaning to, maybe I can learn how to do it on command? That would be so cool, then I could defend myself against the Dursleys and they couldn't do anything to me anymore.'

And so Harry started to concentrate about getting a broken Toy he stole from Dudley a few weeks back to move.

* * *

Two weeks later he still couldn't get it to float. Oh, it would wiggle and twitch around but not move like he wanted it to.

There was something he was doing wrong, and he just didn't know what.

His family had kept him locked up in the cupboard most of the time as punishment for his good grades, and he was let out only once a day to get to the toilet and eat the leftovers from his relative's dinner the day before, so he had plenty of time to try to get the toy to move, however it just didn't want to, and the effort, combined with his special 'diet' left him exhausted all the time.

Finally his Aunt let him out again because she was growing tied of having to do all the chores by herself.

So he continued with his previous daily routine and between cleaning, cooking and working in the garden he thought about what he was doing wrong in his training, as he called it.

By the time his seventh birthday came around he was growing frustrated. Instead of floating into his hand like he wanted it to, the toy was only twitching on the spot and last week he had gotten so angry at it that it broke completely. So instead of the broken little car he had to practise with a few pieces of scrap metal.

On his birthday he was already stressed because his Aunt had her neighbours over and he had to serve dinner. He knew that if he slipped up or made a mistake he would spend the rest of his birthday and the next few days in his cupboard starving after getting beaten up when the neighbours left.

So he just finished the cookies and the coffee for the Guests and after putting the cookies on a fine plate proceeded to bring the coffee into the living room to serve the guests.

After he returned into the kitchen he heard his Cousin Dudley running into the house and smashing the front door behind him. The plate with the cookies formerly just on the edge of the kitchen table started moving toward the edge because of the vibrations from the front door and started falling.

Horrified Harry realized what would happen when the plate hit the ground, and extended his hand to the plate willing it to stop, and the plate, with the cookies hovered in the air.

* * *

After the birthday incident as Harry called it, he found that he could make things float towards him or let them hover in the air if he only willed it strong enough. The trick was not to get angry (because then the things would only twitch and break) but to really WANT it to happen, and concentrate not only on what he wanted to move but where he wanted it to move at the same time.

At some point he debated with himself to show the Dursleys what he could do, but quickly decided against it when he remembered the last time his Uncle had ranted about his unnaturalness.

The next thing he figured out was how to heal small wounds or scrapes, after all he had already healed himself every night after a beating so he figured that that should be easy as well.

When he did that, however, he found that he would tire very quickly and be exhausted after only one healed scrape or a few minutes of letting things float so he set on to practicing every time he could and find ways to get more food because he would be hungry all the time.

Harry believed that his power was like a muscle, the more he used it, the longer he could use it and the better things he would be able to do.

One side effect however was that after he was sore all over his body after every practice. So he simply exercised his body too, running to and from school instead of driving with the bus, using water cans for weight lifting in his cupboard.

That would only make him hungrier even faster, and he was desperate to find a way to get more food.

This changed at some point after he was locked in his cupboard again, because Dudley had not been able to catch Harry the day before in a game of 'Harry Hunting' with his friends.

When he came home Dudley told his parents that Harry would make fun of him by outrunning him every time in front of his friends.

Vernon had promptly beaten Harry to the point he couldn't move anymore and told him that he would stay in the cupboard for a while, which meant usually two days at least.

Now Harry, after his relatives had apparently forgotten to let him out that day to eat and go to the toilet, was on the verge of pissing himself and stood against the door willing his Uncle to come and open the door already, when suddenly the lock clicked open and the door was unlocked.

After he successfully completed his morning routine and stole some food from the kitchen without anyone knowing he went back into his closed and thought about how he could best use his new power.

Finally he had an idea. He knew that the store at school where the students could buy sandwiches during lunch in their free period locked the food in a small room at the back of the store after the backer delivered it in the morning, so he could break into the room and take however much he wanted as long as he wasn't caught.

While he practiced his powers as much as possible and tried to train his body in the rest of his free time he still kept up his studies, even through he no longer scored high on the tests. In fact he went to great lengths to fake stupidity in his classes and assignment to stay below his cousin and still pass class, a task that wasn't easy as Dudley himself only barely managed to get passing grades.

So between chores, studying, practising and training the time passed quickly, in fact it was the happiest time Harry could remember ever having, since because he learned to control his emotions in order to avoid using his power in ways he didn't want to, far less strange things happened around him and he was only occasionally beaten up when Dudley and his friends would catch him off guard or his Uncle Vernon hat a really bad day at work.

His Aunt mostly ignored him as long as he did his chores, and he was glad to stay out of her way the rest of the time, until one day one of the neighbours commented to Aunt Petunia that Harry's hair was getting kind of long because he hadn't bothered to cut it in quite some time. In fact it was already more than 7 inches long at places.

So Petunia took Harry aside one evening and used the electric razor to completely cut all his hair except in the front to cover up his scar.

Needless to say, Harry didn't like the new haircut at all, and when he woke up the next morning he was delighted to see that his hair had grown over night to his original length.

That got him one week in the cupboard, in which he figured out how to make his hair shorter and longer at will. He even attempted to change the colour of his hair, however in the dark he couldn't really see if it worked so he let that go for another time.

* * *

By the time of his eight birthday he could float two medium sized books at the same time, unlock a door from over three feet distance and change his hair colour. He also found out that he could make slight changes to his face, for example make his nose a little smaller or bigger, and while he was unable to change his eye colour (which would have been really useful, since everyone found his piercing green eyes strange) he found that he could see better even without his glasses, after he broke them by accident and his Aunt refused to get him new ones as punishment. He could even see in the dark a little and read books in his cupboard, however his eyes started to hurt if he did that for too long.

When he mentioned to his Aunt two weeks later that he had gotten contacts from the school nurse she merely shrugged her shoulders and didn't mention his glasses again.

He continued practising his gifts over the next year as well, finding more and more interesting exercises to do. For example he started to notice that he could feel it if someone wanted to hurt him or was lying to him just by looking into their eyes.

One time he was walking home from school he saw his Dudley standing on a street corner looking at him, and somehow knew that he should turn around and run away. Suddenly Dudley's friends came at him from behind and chased him toward his Cousin who was grinning madly. After that he made it a point to listen to this feeling.

The most surprising thing that happened to him that year however was when he started hearing a voice in the woods near the playground where he liked to hang out to practise his powers. It turned out that not only could he hear what snakes said, but they understood him as well, calling him a speaker.

Harry's life continued in the same fashion. He had no friends because Dudley and his gang would beat everyone up who talked to him, not that he cared for friends, after all who could he trust when everyone he ever knew treated him like a the delinquent and troublemaker his Aunt and Uncle said that he was. His only friends were the snakes in the woods, they would exchange stories when he was bored and sometimes even visited him when he had to work in the garden.

He was nine years old already when he made another discovery.

It was summer and he was using a disguise to walk around the local shopping mall. He had his hair short and blond, changed his face a little and hid his scar. He found out after long practise that he could change his head almost completely (except his eyes, they always stayed green) as long as it stayed the same size, probably the same reason he could change nothing else about his body as he could not make himself bigger or smaller, or even ad muscles or fat, it just didn't work.

As usual he waited for someone who looked like he had money to walk by, used his power to levitate his purse out of the mans pocket after he saw where he put it away when his target brought something. Then he just walked up to the purse, picked it up and walked to the nearest bathroom, taking out all the money before he dropped the purse into the bin.

Usually he had to do that two or three times during the summer to get enough money to buy himself something to eat in order not to starve with what little his relatives gave him.

So he strolled out of the bathroom when he saw a security guard walking towards him.

Looking in his eyes his feeling started to act up again, only this time he heard a voice '_stop you little thief, you won't get away from me'_ so he started running as fast as he could.

Using the emergency exit he ran around the corner and as soon as he saw that no one was looking he changed his form back to normal and walked away.

He spent the next few days trying to figure out what the voice was he had heard until during one day in school he looked the teacher into the eye while he was asking a question and suddenly the voice told him the answer even before the teacher said it out loud.

After some practice in looking people into the eye (something he did not very often, as they would always notice him and ask him what he wanted) he found out that he could sometimes see a flicker of people's thoughts, especially if the person talked to him or thought about him.

That power scared the hell out of him. He had long come to the conclusion that he could not be the only one with special powers. The snakes called him a speaker, meaning that they knew what he was, and that there had to be others like him, but they had never met one, so he didn't know where to look or even if he wanted to look for them.

But if he had the power to read someone's mind, then could they maybe read his mind too?

He could not stop thinking about that, after all his thoughts where the only place where he could really be himself, and did not have to pretend to be weak or stupid.

Without the safety of his mind there was no way he could ever look for others like him, it would be far too much of a risk.

So Harry tried to find a way to figure out how to protect his own mind from others.

He was already used to hiding his emotions, knowledge and opinions, could hiding his thoughts be so much different?

So he imagined a wall in his head behind his eyes that would protect him from everyone else when he imagined something click together and felt a sense of safety he hadn't before.

* * *

When his tenth birthday came around the young boy that once wanted to prove himself to his relatives had changed. Harry was confident in his ability and refused to continue to allow his relatives to make his life hell.

So he decided that on his birthday he would show them his powers and demand a better treatment or destroy their life's for a change.

That Saturday morning on the 31st July he dressed in his best clothes (he had long bought his own from the mall, using the stolen money, saying that they were hand-me-downs from a classmate) and walked down into the living room where his Aunt was sitting with her back turned to him, waiting for him to make breakfast.

"Good Morning Aunt Petunia"

She turned around, scowled at his grinning face and snarled "don't stand around boy, in the kitchen with you. Breakfast isn't making itself"

"No"

"What no? Are you daft? In the kitchen, now, or-"

"No, I won't do it. I've had enough. Make your own breakfast in the future, do your own chores, I am done!"

"VERNON, COME DOWN, THE BOY HAS GONE MAD! HE REFUSED TO DO HIS WORK!"

"WHAT? OH, THE LITTLE SHIT IS GOING TO REGRET IT!"

Harry stood with his back against the counter and waited for his Uncle to come down the stairs while his Aunt glared at him with pure disgust in her eyes.

Red in the face a fat middle aged man waltzed down the stairs, screaming with spit flying out of his mouth "WHERE IS HE?" before locking onto Harry.

Said boy only stared back and snarled "stay back, or I will enjoy hurting you" stretching out his hand toward one of the chairs in the room, and summoning it in front of him, leaving his relatives standing with an open mouth for a second after which Vernon looked like a vein in his face would pop his colouring turning from red to purple.

"YOU LITTLE SHIT, AFTER ALL WE HAVE DONE FOR YOU, AND YOU DARE SHOWING YOUR UNNATRUALNESS IN OUR HOUSE? WAIT UNTIL I GET TO YOU"

While his Uncle stormed with his fist raised at Harry, he gathered all his power and waved both hands at the man in front of him, hurling the chair and his Uncle 7 feet into the wall behind.

Summoning one of the knifes from the kitchen he pointed it at his Aunt who looked ready to kill him.

"Stay where you are and listen well, because I will not say it again. I've had enough of you all. I want nothing to do with you but it seems that we will have to live with each other. I will take Dudley's toy room, so go help him throw his old toys out. After that we will not talk to each other again. I do not need your money or food so you won't have to give me anything at all, in return I won't do anything for you. You will not see me other than when I go out in the morning and come back in the evening, and even then we will ignore each other, do you understand?"

"Now wait boy, you think you can just-"

"NO, YOU WAIT, if you even think of trying to do anything to me, I will make sure you will die in your sleep, $isn't that right, my friends?$"

The shocked look on Petunias face when he hissed at her was only surpassed by her mask of horror when she saw the snakes sliding along the floor in Harry's direction, crawling up his legs and attaching themselves onto his body.

Vernon slowly waking up from his stupor paled when he saw his Nephew standing there looking at him with cold eyes like he was nothing.

Then Harry turned to Petunia and ordered her to tell her Husband and Son the new rules before leaving the house through the back door, letting down the snakes and disappearing toward the park.

Only after he was out of the sight of his House he let a smile show that turned into laughter the more he thought about what he had just done.

Oh, his life would be different now!

* * *

The next year went well for Harry Potter.

Even through he no longer got food from the Dursley's he also had far more free time since he no longer wasted time doing chores.

It had taken his Uncle three warnings and one broken arm to stop trying to strangle Harry every time they saw each other, and he had levitated Dudley up a tree after he tried to beat him up with his friends, but after that the whole Dursley Family had taken to pretending he didn't exist. Sometimes days went on without Harry running into one of them and he spent most of his free time in the woods, the school or the library. Twice a day he went to the mall or some convenience store to buy food and other things with his stolen money.

The only thing that kept bugging Harry was that his Aunt and Uncle hadn't seemed surprised at his abilities, only angry and scared. He wondered why that was but with no way to find out because he sure as hell couldn't ask them, he dismissed the thought entirely.

So Harry's life remained unchanged until one hot summer day he woke up in the morning to go out and celebrate his eleventh birthday when an owl knocked on his window.

* * *

AN: So that concludes Harry's time growing up at the Dursleys. You may have noticed that my Harry still looks reasonable similar to the canon Harry Potter (black hair, small, green eyes usw). All the little differences (straight hair instead of unruly) can be explained with the fact that he looks more like Lily instead of James so while he will be no James junior no one will suspect anything.  
Some of you probably believe that I made my Harry to powerful or something, however if you think about it, the only thing he learned that he could really use is to lock and unlock doors or let something levitate.  
His Metamorphmagus powers will stay as limited as they are now, so he could at best use them to disguise himself a little when he goes out, and his primitive Occlumency would not hold half a second against Snape or Dumbledore as it is.  
Also his Legilimency skills work only against Muggles because they have absolutely no shields at all, however every Witch or Wizard has a natural Occlumency shield that he will not be able to penetrate without learning the real thing.  
The other two things that separate my Harry from the Original are his power (after all he has already used magic intensively for 4 years, so he probably has the raw power of your average 5th or 6th year at the moment but none of their skill) and his personality.  
He is colder, far more egoistical, since he only has himself, and he is not looking for friends, after all he expects everyone to hate or at least ignore him so he gave up trying a long time ago. He won't stay a thief through, after all once he finds out that he has money that will be unnecessary.


	3. A Wizard?

Disclaimer: I own nothing

AN: Hi, everyone. Thanks to those that read my story and wrote reviews, it's nice to know that someone appreciates what I do.  
One thing was asked to clarify: Voldemord is EVIL, he will NEVER have a father/son/mentor or whatsoever positive relationship with my Harry ;-)  
Now, on with the story:

"speech"  
'thoughts'  
"**spells**"  
$parseltounge$

**Chapter 2****: A Wizard?**

*knock*

"…"

*knock**knock*

Harry could only stare t the strange bird that was knocking on his window.

It certainly looked like your ordinary everyday owl, but a normal owl wouldn't go knocking on windows.

'Well then, let's see what it wants' he thought before opening the window to let the owl in.

Said bird flew into the room, circled it once after which it landed on the desk in front of him and stuck out its leg.

Harry could only blink at this strange behaviour but when he saw the letter attached to the bird's leg he grew wary.

Who in the world sent letters with an owl, and more important, who sent letters with an owl TO HIM? There had to be some explanation. He cautiously eyed the bird that looked at him expectantly and twitched its leg again.

Sighting he carefully tried to take the letter from the owl, wary of its long claws. When the bird made no attempt to stop him he relaxed and took a first look at the letter. It was wrapped in heavy parchment that was addressed to

_Mr. Harry Potter_

_Smallest Bedroom_

_4 Privet Drive _

_Little Whinging_

_Surrey_

The owl looked around restlessly but made no attempt to move, so he pointed toward a bowl filled with chips and salted peanuts and asked "you hungry?"

Giving him a grateful look the bird descended onto the bowl and started picking little nuts.

Shaking his head Harry opened the letter and spent the next minute looking at the headline.

That had to be a joke, right?

In big ornate letters it said:

_Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

Still in shock he continued to read:

_Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore _

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc. , Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

_Dear Mr. Potter ,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. _

_Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall,_

_D__eputy Headmistress_

"…"

Witchcraft and Wizardry.

He was a Wizard? And they had a School? Why hadn't he heard about that before? They obviously knew about him, so why hadn't he ever seen one?

The letter was addressed to his room! They knew exactly where he lived! What else did they know? Panicking he watched around, expecting someone to jump in front of him and scream "buh". When no one came he slowly clamed down, remembering the owl on his desk, that seemed to be watching him with interest. Wait, owl? '_We await your owl by no later than July 31._'

TODAY? He panicked again. How should he send a letter today when he didn't know their address and –. He looked at the bird in front of him again.

"Are you waiting for a reply? Will you bring the letter to the one that sent you here?"

The bird seemed to nod at him, and Harry let out a sigh, before grabbing some paper and a pen and began to write his reply.

_Dear Deputy Headmistress McGonagall,_

_I received your letter today and __have to admit that I'm very confused at the moment._

_Witches and Wizards are real? I mean I noticed that sometimes strange things happened around me but Magic? I also have no idea where to buy the books and equipment, and with what money__, because my relatives are not likely to pay for such a school._

_I would very much like to know more about magic and would ask you to send someone/something to explain in a little more detail._

_Yours sincerely _

_Harry Potter_

Folding the letter in half he secured it on the owl's leg causing the bird to look at him once more and nod, before taking of through the open window.

Somehow Harry knew that an interesting time was about to start.

* * *

Harry had never been so excited.

Yesterday another owl had come by, with a letter that said that someone from the school staff would take him out shopping to some Wizard City where he would get his money and stuff.

His relatives where out somewhere today, so there was no chance that they would run into each other, and he had dressed up in his best clothes.

He was just short of jumping around in the house, because he couldn't calm down, when he heard someone knocking on the door.

Running as fast as possible he pressed down the handle and opened it wide, only to see a mountain of a man standing just in front of him.

Taking a moment to gape with his mouth wide open he collected himself and said "Good Day, Sir. You must be the one they sent from Hogwarts. I'm Harry, Harry Potter" reaching out with his hand waiting for the man to respond.

The man looked at him with wide eyes, taking Harry's hand with into his and.

"Harry Potter, it is really you. It has been a long time since we last saw each other. I am Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of the Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts, nice to finally see you again."

"I'm sorry, do we know each other? You said it's been a long time…?" Harry asked while the two of them made their way into the living room.

"Ah, where are my manners, I was a friend of your parents, you always used to play with my beard when you where little, those where times… I was the one who brought you here after they were killed…"

"Wait, you knew my parents? And what do you mean 'when they were killed'? I thought they died in a car accident?" 'And you were the one who brought me to this hellhole?'

"WHAAAAAT? Who said that? Lily and James in a car accident? No, they were a young Witch and Wizard before they got killed by You-Know-Who just before you defeated him"

"Witch and Wizard? Killed? But Uncle Vernon always said-"

"DURSLEY, I should have known. Did they tell you nothing about them, how they fought against You-Know-Who and the Death eaters or about your magic?"

"No, they only said that my mum was a tramp who ran of with my lazy bum of a dad before they got into a car accident because my dad was drunk…"

By the time Harry had finished the sentence Hagrid was literally growling and had a murderous look on his face.

"DURSLEY, WHERE ARE THEY, THEY-", he was interrupted when Harry asked "You said they were killed by You-Know-Who, who was that?"

Hagrid suddenly got a sad expression on his face and looked Harry straight in the eye.

"You-Know-Who was a terrible powerful wizard. He dabbled into dark magic and became a monster of no equal. Then fifteen years ago he and his followers, the Dead Eaters, started a war in the Wizarding World. They were mostly Purebloods, wizards who's parents, and their parents parents and so on were wizards too, and they believed that magic should only be taught to other Purebloods, and that Muggleborns like your mother, meaning that their parents where both Muggles, non-magical people, should be killed.

The civil war raged for more than five years, people who stood against Him disappeared, others where killed right in the street. In the end we had almost lost, the ministry was powerless, nobody knew who to trust, because everyone could be a Death Eater. And then you happened. You-Know-Who broke into the wards of your home in Godric's Hollow and killed your parents, but when he tried to kill you something happened. The killing curse, one of the darkest pieces of magic that kills anyone it hits rebounded from you back to Him and He died, while you lived. That is where your scar comes from, and that is why you are famous in our world."

Harry sat down and tried to take in what he had just been told. A dark wizard killed his parents but failed to kill him and died? And he was famous? But why was he here then, and not somewhere in this 'Wizarding World'?

"Hagrid, this You-Know-Who, does he have a name?"

Hagrid blanched at the question and stuttered around until "Voldemord, that was his name, but it isn't spoken, everyone just calls him You-Know-Who or The-One-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named"

"Voldemord" Harry muttered, and Hagrid flinched at the name. "What happened to his followers, the Death Eaters?"

Hagrid let out a sigh. "Some of them where killed or executed, some are in Azkaban, the wizarding prison, but most of them claimed that they were held under the Imperious curse, a nasty piece of magic that allows one to control the mind of another, and bought and bribed themselves free. They are still around, no doubt waiting for the next dark wizard to follow. That was the reason why Dumbledore had me bring you here, because he thought you would be save from them here in the Muggle World. Seeing as nothing happened to you he was right."

Harry reflected over that new information. So it was not Hagrid who brought him here, but Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts. He let out a sigh and stood up again.

"Ok, enough talk, lets go shopping, I want to see this Wizarding World of yours"

Hagrid, grinning over his whole face, took Harry's hand and the two of them walked outside.

"So how will we get there? And I still don't know with what money I should pay everything…"

"Ah, don't worry, we will take the Knight Bus to the Leaky Cauldron in London, and from there we can get into Diagon Ally, the biggest Wizarding Ally in England. In Diagon Ally there is a bank called Gringotts that is run by the Goblin. Nasty little creatures, only interested in gold and profit, however they have a way with money that we could only envy. Your parents opened a trust vault for before they died, that will pay for your Hogwarts tuition and your school stuff."

He lifted the umbrella he had brought with him, even through the weather was fine, and suddenly a loud bang radiated through the street, originating from a large thing on four wheels, looking vaguely like a bus that had jumped into existence.

"That's the Knight Bus, they are summoned when someone lifts his wand and thinks about them, so don't tell anyone about my umbrella, because I'm not supposed to have a wand."

"Wand…" Harry murmured while the bus came to a stop.

The bus doors opened and the conductor's voice reached their ears

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch and wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor this morning"

Hagrid walked up to Mr. Shunpike and said: "Two to Diagon Ally please"

"That will be fourteen Sickles please"

Hagrid reached deep into his coat and pulled out a few silver coins and handed them to the conductor.

"Come Harry, get in"

Just as Harry stepped into the bus it accelerated and vanished with another bang.

By the time Harry settled on the seat next to Hagrid he was feeling slightly ill from the way the bus would jump from one place to another.

"What was that money you used to pay the driver?" he asked curiously.

"Those were silver Sickles. In the Wizarding World there is a different currency than in the Muggle World. Look here" he pulled out some coins "the bronze little ones are Knuts, 29 Knuts equal one Sickle, 17 Sickles are one Galleon" he pointed at the big cold coin.

"One Galleon is about ten pounds worth in muggle money" he continued.

"The wizarding money is charmed, so you can't just melt it down and sell it in the Muggle World, if you try, the Goblins will know, and believe me, you don't want to get into trouble with them."

* * *

Over the next twenty minutes they talked about various things in the Wizarding World that Hagrid thought Harry should know until Stan Shunpike shouted through the bus "Next Stop: The Leaky Cauldron"

With a bang the Knight Bus materialised in front of an old, shabby looking pub and came to a sudden stop.

Harry and Hagrid tumbled out of the door and onto the street, still a little shaken from the drive, until Hagrid told Harry to follow and stepped into the pub.

"Hello Hagrid, you here for a drink" came a voice from the bar, and old looking bartender smiled at them.

"No thank you Tom, I'm here for business today, have to get something for Dumbledore and show young Harry around"

The bartender's eyes moved from Hagrid to Harry who was looking small next to the big man.

"My god, is that Harry Potter?"

Suddenly all noise ceased and everyone turned to look at the young boy. Or more likely at his forehead, looking for the scar.

Harry was wary of all the eyes looking at him, but didn't shy back and looked back at the people staring at him, until the nearest wizard came forward to shake his hands.

"It is an honour to meat you, Mr. Potter. Thank you for everything you have done for us."

One after another people came forward to shake his hands and greet him, while Harry could only nod and murmur his thanks, until Hagrid stepped forward and said with a loud voice "I'm sorry everyone, but we have to get going, to buy his school supplies. Come Harry, let's go"

Harry silently thanked Hagrid, said his good byes and followed the large man to a stone wall.

Hagrid took out his umbrella, pointed at certain stones until and archway opened.

Stepping through, Harry could only stare at all the things he saw.

There where stores for literally everything. He saw a store with all kinds of owls sitting around, next to it one cauldron was stacked upon another.

On the other side of the street a shield said 'Dragon Liver, cheaper than everyone else' and further ahead a shop sold flying brooms. It was like a fantasy book came to life. Sometimes there where other streets branching of the main road. One particularly dark ally was called Knockturn Ally and Hagrid said that it was dangerous and he should never walk there alone, or better even, never walk there at all. Of course that only made him more curious.

Finally they came to halt in front of a large marble building with huge silver doors that had a warning engraved on them.

_Enter, stranger, but take heed_

_Of what awaits the sin of greed_

_For those who take, but do not earn,_

_Must pay most dearly in their turn._

_So if you seek beneath our floors,_

_A treasure that was never yours,_

_Thief, you have been warned, beware_

_Of finding more than treasure here._

Hagrid pointed at the building and said "This is Gringotts, the wizarding bank, run by the Goblins. Stay close to me so you don't get lost."

They stepped into the great entrance hall and Harry's eyes fell immediately upon one of the small strange creatures running around. They were maybe four foot tall and had a greyish colour, long arms and legs and a pronounced face with sharp eyes and a long hawk nose.

Hagrid walked up to one of the counters and said to the Goblin "Good morning, we are here to visit Mr. Potters vault, and I have a letter here from Professor Dumbledore concerning a package in vault seven hundred thirteen."

"Do you have the key for Mr. Potters vault here?"

"Yes, one moment please," he reached again into one of his coats pockets and pulled out a tiny little golden key and a Letter.

The goblin reached for it and examined the key closely before handing it back to Hagrid, who tried to pocket it again, only for Harry to reach out with his hand.

"It's my key" "Ah, yes, sorry Harry, I forgot" Harry took his key and pocketed it.

The goblin watched the interaction closely while looking over the letter, before yelling to one of his colleges "Griphook, take the two of the to their vaults"

Griphook motioned for them to follow and stepped into some kind of cart that looked like an ore cart from some kind of middle aged mine.

After all three sat down, Griphook handled some controls and the cart started to accelerate to breaknecking speeds.

When it finally slowed down, Harry had a huge grin on his face, while Hagrid looked slightly green.

They stopped in front of a vault door and Griphook motioned for Harry to open it with his key. Inside was a middle sized room, maybe a hundred square feet, and in the middle of the room a mountain of gold coins, almost as big as him.

Harry took one of the bags lying around and started to pocked golden coins until Hagrid's voice hailed inside: "Take only a hundred Galleons, Harry, that will be enough"

Sighting Harry counted out a hundred coins and wondered why he should not take more, when there was obviously more than enough coins here.

Pocketing the money he walked back outside, the vault doors closing behind him, and stepped back into the cart.

* * *

After that Hagrid had taken some little package from another vault and the two had started to buy his school supplies. Hagrid told him only to buy what was on the list, even through he wanted more books, however he protested to no avail.

While he brought his school uniform at some shop named Madam Malkins, Hagrid took to the Apothecary for the rest of his necessarities. In the end there was only his wand left to buy, and Hagrid sent him on his own into the wand maker Ollivanders shop.

In the after almost thirty minutes and at least fifty wands he found his match, an eleven inch, holly with a phoenix feather core. As it turned out, it was Voldemord's brother wand, something Harry found a little creepy. However since, as Ollivander liked to say, the wand will choose the wizard and not the other way around, it would have to do.

Outside, Harry met up again with Hagrid, who gave him a beautiful snow owl as a present.

Now, with only a few galleons left, the two of the made their way outside, and took the Knight Bus back to Little Whinging.

Hagrid left Harry standing in front of his house, with a warning that underage magic was prohibited outside of Hogwarts and that he should come to visit him once the school year started.

After carrying all his bags upstairs into his room, he contemplated what happened that day, and what he should do next.

It was obvious to him that someone was trying to keep something from him.

He was famous, but nobody told him anything about magic until now. He was ignorant of this new world, even if every idiot would see that he needed to learn as much as possible about everything, or otherwise he would be manipulated by someone for his fame, or worse, killed by those so called innocent Death Eaters.

After hours of planning his next moves, he fell asleep exhausted.

* * *

The next morning Harry was up early.

He completed his morning routine, took his new wand and money and walked down into the living room, where his relatives were eating breakfast.

"You knew, didn't you", he asked, pulling out his wand and placing it on the table.

His Aunt Petunia paled immediately and choked on her food, while his Uncle glared at him with hatred in his eyes. Dudley only looked curious.

"Where did you get that vile thing" his Aunt screeched after she found her voice again.

"So you really knew, about me being a wizard, and my parents. Why didn't you tell me?"

"So you could join those freaks in robes, doing who knows what? So that you could flaunt us with your abilities and laugh at us, acting as if we were worthless, like your mother did?, No, I would not have another freak in my house!" she screamed.

His Uncle was curiously quiet, probably holding himself back from lashing out at Harry, while his Cousin Dudley sat shocked with his mouth open.

"I'm going to Hogwarts this year. I assume my mother went too?" he said with a resigned quiet voice.

"Yes, go, and don't come back. It will be for the best." That was the first time his Uncle had spoken since he walked into the room.

"I intend to", Harry replied, "but I have a few things to do first. I will look around for somewhere else to live for the rest of the summer, and with a bit of luck I might not need to come back."

With that he stood up, left the room to put on his shoes and walked out of the house.

He had already decided what to do. After all he had all that money in the bank, there had to be a way to leave this place behind.

Approaching the sidewalk he put out his wand and concentrated on the Knight Bus.

With a bang it appeared out of nowhere, the door opened and Mr. Shunpikes voice came out of the Bus.

"To the Leaky Cauldron please."

The door closed, and with a bang, the bus was gone.

* * *

AN. So, Harry had his first impression of the Wizarding World. Some will have noticed that my Harry is far more suspicious than the canon one.  
He will not let someone else dictate him what he is allowed to do and what not. He is also smarter to recognise some of the dangers this world will hold for him, and has a far greater drive to learn.

Let's see what his next step will be ;-) The next chapter will come soon.


	4. A New World

Disclaimer: I own nothing

AN. Sorry for the delay, I had a lot on my mind the last few days so I wasn't able to write much.  
Thank you for all the positive reviews, it's what gives me the motivation to write faster, because I don't want to disappoint you ;-)  
Darkwill0w and Dericof Diname asked about how Voldemord being his father will affect him, and while I don't want to spoiler anything I will tell you that he won't find out for a while yet, so anything that makes Harry resembling Tom Riddle is because I deliberately created a similar childhood environment, however the two of them are two separate persons and while in some ways similar, in other ways fundamentally different.  
On another note I forgot to mention last chapter that I won't do dialect. You probably already saw it on Hagrid, but I am not an English speaking native, so while I think I know enough about the language to write a story, I would probably only ridicule myself if I tried to write dialect. Now on with the chapter:

"speech"  
'thoughts'  
"**spells**"  
$parseltounge$

**Chapter 3: A new World**

Harry arrived at the Leaky Cauldron around 9am in the morning. Immediately after stepping outside the bus he changed his hair until it was almost white and more than fifteen inches long, before binding it into a pony tail. He hid his scar and rearranged a few bones in his face so it looked more pronounced and a little older.

Feeling secure with his new persona he walked into the pub, straight to the wall with the hidden archway. After three tries he finally got the right combination from what he remembered Hagrid doing.

Breaking into a secure stride he looked like he owned the street as he walked down the ally and into Gringotts. Seeing that it was still morning, very little customers were into the bank. He walked up to the goblin that was the farthest away from the other customers and addressed him:

"Good morning Sir, I'm Harry Potter and I would like to speak with you in private about some matters"

The goblin only sneered at him. "Harry Potter was here yesterday and you don't look anything like him, so get lost before I call the guards."

"That's kind of the point, don't you think" he said, while changing his face for a moment, showing the goblin his scar, before changing back.

The goblins eyes widened for a second before he answered.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, I'm sorry I did not recognise you. I'm Runestock, please follow me to the back, where we can talk"

The two of them settled in a small conference room and Runestock started: "So, what might you need, Mr. Potter, that you would come disguised to our bank?"

"I wanted to know more about the status of my vault here, as I have only found out that I am a wizard three days ago, and that I have a vault here, yesterday. I want to know how much money I have, and what other things you can tell me that I own. A house in Godric's Hollow is of particularly interest to me."

By the time Harry had finished, the goblin sat there with his eyes wide open.

"You mean to tell me that you, Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, the last of the Most Ancient and Noble Hose of Potter, only found out about magic three days ago? What have you been doing all these years?"

"I was pretty much abandoned on my aunt's doorsteps, a muggle who rather hated magic and everything that came with it, and that includes me. I need to find out as much as possible about what resources I have, and Gringotts was of course my first step."

Now Runestock grinned at Harry. "If you wait for a moment, I will gather the information for you, however for some matters concerning your Family Vaults I will need to get my superior." The flattered goblin left Harry sitting in the conference room, while he went to see his superior. The young Potter heir was very well behaved, and seemed to think of them as equals. The fact that he said that Gringotts was his first step also showed much about his priorities. There was business to be made, he could just feel it.

In the meantime Harry thought about what was just said. A family vault? Yesterday he was in his trust vault, meaning he had multiple vaults and the trust vault was probably only a piece of the whole. Also the 'Most Ancient and Noble House'-Title hat taken him by surprise. What did that mean? He knew already that he had much to learn, but it only seemed to get worse.

Finally after some time Runestock came back with another goblin who introduced himself as Ragnok, Branch Manager of Gringotts London.

Harry was a bit surprised that such an important person was personally coming to see him, but dismissed it as something connected do with his title.

"Mr. Potter, it is nice to see someone so young interested into the true treasure in life: Gold.

Let's come to the point: You have two vaults connected to the Potter name, your family vault and your trust vault.

Your family vault currently holds 4.462.125 Galleons 10 Sickles and 5 Knuts, as well as countless artefacts and family heirlooms and the deeds to your properties, however only the Lord Potter can open it and step inside, so while you are not the Lord, that vault and everything in it is unattainable to you."

"What would I have to do to become Lord Potter?"

"It is relatively simple: once you are fourteen you must come here to claim your vault. You can then take your family ring and the vault, as well as all the things attached to it. As long as you are not wearing your family ring, you will be unable to breach the ancient wards of your vault and around your properties."

Harry grumbled about that for a moment. He was so rich, but couldn't do anything with his money because he was too young.

"What about my trust vault then? I have the key and I was able to enter it yesterday"

"Ah, your trust vault. It currently contains 9900 Galleons and will be automatically refilled to hold 10.000 Galleons in it by the end of the year. While you can access your trust vault to buy school supplies you can only take one hundred Galleons a year without the approval of your Magical Guardian. He-"

"Wait, Magical Guardian? I have no idea who that is, as I said already before to Mr. Runestock, I only found out about Magic three day ago when I got my Hogwarts letter"

Ragnok looked Harry in the eyes for a moment, seemingly annoyed because he was interrupted before continuing with his speech.

"As I said, your guardian limited the amount of money you can draw by yourself to a hundred Galleons, and you have already withdrawn them this year. Your Magical Guardian is Albus Dumbledore, who as Headmaster of Hogwarts is the Guardian to every Muggleborn or Orphan in Hogwarts if not other wisely determined."

"Why would Dumbledore be my Guardian? I mean, I am the Boy-Who-Lived, I'm sure there are hundreds of Witches and Wizards out there who would take me in, instead of leaving me with that farce of a family…" The more he thought about it, the more he was annoyed with Dumbledore. Not only did he put him on the doorsteps of hell… er, to his relatives without telling him about magic or even looking out if he was treated well, but interfered with his ability to leave that place.

"Is there a way for me to get to some of the money without Dumbledore's approval or even knowledge? Or can I get someone else as my guardian?"

"It is very unlikely that Dumbledore will give up his guardianship of you or he would have done so a long time ago, and he is in a position of power where it will be impossible to go against him legally. The best way for you will be to wait it out until you are fourteen and then take on your Lordship, which will emancipate you automatically.

Now, about your money. It will be impossible to get to the Potter Assets without your Family Ring, however there might be a way to get to at least some money."

Harry looked suspicious at the ginning faces of Ragnok and Runestock.

"Well, let's hear it."

"As you may know, your mother was a Muggleborn. During her school time she set up her own account and never closed it or merged it with the Potter vaults. As it has not been used in over ten years it has been collecting interest nicely and holds at the moment 35.252 Galleons 3 Sickles and 15 Knuts. It is only a low security vault, which does not mean that it is not protected, however there is no family magic cast on it and everyone from the Evans family can claim it. Now, according to Ministry laws, only an adult may do so, however we have our own set of laws and rules, and it matters little to us what the wizards want or don't want, as long as our laws are uphold."

"Are you saying you would let me take the gold from the Evans vault?"

The two goblins looked at each other, and grinned, before looking back, now with a hard look that could have broken steel.

"We may do you a favour of, lets say, forgetting to report the claiming of the Evans vault to the Ministry and to your Guardian, if you will do us a favour as well."

Now Harry was really suspicious. He thought it over what it could mean for him to owe the goblins a favour. After all he had heard that they were only interested in money, what if the favour was all the rest of his money?

Two minutes later he looked up at Ragnok, with an equally hard look on his face.

"What would you have me do for you?"

"Well, seeing as you are the most famous boy in England, you hold a significant amount of influence. In three years time you will most likely claim your Lordship which includes a seat in the Wizengamot, the Wizarding Government, so it may be in our interest to have your ear should a situation arise."

He took another minute to look at his problem from different sides before answering:

"I will owe you a favour, however the favour will not have anything to do with my gold, possessions, properties or anything else I own. It must not interfere with my education or cause a direct risk to my life or health and take me no longer than one month to fulfil. Also, if you do not call in the favour within ten years it will be forfeit. Is that acceptable?"

Now it was the goblins turn to look surprised.

They turned to each other, talking fast in some language he didn't recognise.

After a few minutes they turned back to him, a smile back on their faces.

"You are an interesting boy, Mr. Potter, not many would have seen through all the loopholes and dangers that come with owing a dept. Very well, we will draw up a contract for both of us to sign that will be magically binding. Should one of us break the contract, his magic and life will be in the hand of the other. "

* * *

One hour later a very satisfied young Harry Potter was leaving Gringotts to continue his plans for the day. With him he had a copy of the contract they had drawn up together, as well as an enchanted moneybag that held five thousand Galleons he took from the Evans vault. His next stop was to find a place to stay for the rest of the summer.

The Leaky Cauldron was an option, however it was one of the most visited places in the Ally since almost everyone had to get though in order to enter the Diagon Ally from London, and he didn't want to take the chance at being discovered as Harry Potter.

Instead he headed into the other direction toward one of the side streets called Sun Ally.

According to the goblins there were a few motels and pubs where one could live for longer while staying out of the way from the busiest areas of Diagon Ally.

He finally found a cosy place called "The Pub In The Park".

The rent was not the cheapest, being forty Galleons a week, however after visiting his room he thought it was well worth it. The room had a huge four-poster bed big enough for two and a cosy love seat, as well as a desk where he could learn for school and plenty of space to exercise. He also had his own bath, with a tub and all surrounding comports needed including three meals a day to be eaten in the magically enlarged garden behind the pub, hence the name of the place. All in all he was very satisfied, and paid, under the name James Hunters, four weeks rent in advance until the September 1st, when he would go to Hogwarts.

As it was lunchtime already, he ate until he was completely saturated.

Then he made his way back to the Leaky Cauldron, changing back his appearance, summoned the Knight Bus and returned to his relative's home.

He went up to his room, packed all his clothes, and took the things he brought the day before and told his owl Hedwig, as he had named her, that she should fly to Diagon Ally and look for him there. Then he carried his stuff down the stairs where he met his Aunt and Uncle.

While his Uncle Vernon stared at him with barely concealed hatred, his Aunt Petunia had an unreadable expression on her face.

"I've found something to stay for a month, and then I will be in school. Hopefully I will never have to come back, so this is good by. Since I am supposed to be living with you, if someone comes looking for me, tell them I am still living here and that I am only out visiting a friend or something."

His Uncle snorted at that, and said something about 'freaks' and 'no friends' under his breath.

His Aunt still with the strange expression said a half hearted good by and wished him good luck, something that surprised him to no ends.

Again summoning the Knight Bus, he left Nr. 4 Privet Drive behind.

* * *

The next week was the busiest Harry had ever had. After carrying all his belongings to his new room, he started looking through the books for the first time. He remembered that he was not allowed to use magic out of school, however no one had ever complained when he did magic without his wand, so he could only assume that it was his wand that was monitored, not his magic.

He found out that there where charms that did exactly what he could do without a wand, and compared the effects with his own experiences.

The things that interested him most however, where Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts. The idea of transforming simple objects into whatever he needed at the moment was astounding, and the ability to defend himself with magic sounded better every time he read it.

He tried both without his wand, however his attempts to fire stinging spells from his hand failed spectacularly and after he blew up a mug when he touched it after his practice and he stopped that practice in favour of transfiguration.

After hours of touching and concentrating on his matchstick, willing it to become a needle, he managed to turn it silvery and it had a pointed end, however after all the practice he was exhausted and called it a day.

Next morning he went shopping again, this time for more clothes as he had only his uniform robes and needed more everyday clothes in order not to stand out.

He had taken to using his new face all the time so no one would recognise him, and had already started getting to know some of the locals he met during his meals, however he was more of a loner and didn't talk very much, only asking questions about wizarding customs here and there.

While he stood browsing through the clothes at Madam Malkins, he met another boy with a pale pointed face and blond hair walked up to him. The two of them got talking a little until Harry groaned "Aggrr, I so wish I could practice magic before entering the school. I mean, it's stupid not being able to practice beforehand. And think of all the things you could do to make your life easier."

With a sigh Harry looked back at the other boy who had introduced himself as Darco Malfoy who was watching him with a grin on his face.

"You know, my father is on the Board of Governors of Hogwarts and he told me that I could practice at home. You see, they can only monitor where magic is done, and not who does it. So if you use magic in a place where adult wizards live, they will automatically assume that it was an adult who cast the spell. Only if magic is done where no adult wizards life, someone investigates whose wand cast the spell, so the underage law only hurts the Mudbloods, and nobody cares about them anyway."

"Mudbloods?"

"You know, Wizards and Witches whose parents where Muggleborn. Don't tell me you are one too…"

"No, I think my dad was a Pureblood and my mum was a Muggleborn, however I'm an orphan and grew up with my muggle aunt so I don't really know anything about magic."

By the time he had finished, the Malfoy boy looked at him with disgust.

"A muggle raised Halfblood? You might as well be a Mudblood. And here I thought that you were the decent sort."

He threw Harry a look that said how little he thought of him, before spitting on the ground in front of Harry and walking away.

Harry didn't know what to do at first. Pureblood, Halfblood, Mud-, no wait, Muggleborn? What did it matter? How stupid to despise someone for who his parents were. That was no better than what his relatives had been doing to him for all his live.

He had to find out more about that. Did all wizards think like that?

Ah, well, nothing he could do to change anything about it now. At least he knew he could use magic in his room without getting caught.

After finishing his shopping, he headed back to his room to pack away his new purchases and picked up his books again, this time to practice magic with his wand.

Four hours later it was time for dinner and he was thoroughly drained.

Hedwig, his owl, was watching him closely and sent a disapproving "Hoot" his way.

He had practiced and completed the transfiguration from the day before and found it easy with his wand. The little stick was like an extension of himself that channelled his power into a more potent form. Things like levitation were difficult at first, because he put in to much power into the spell, however after a few minutes practise he could do it even without the awkward hand movements and saying the spell.

After all he had done levitations for years now, there should be no reason that he suddenly would have to say 'Wingardium Leviosa' for it to work.

As he had understood the instruction, the wand movements and said words where necessary to focus the magic into the specific spell, and his intend determined if it would do what it should.

So if he got the words or movement wrong, the magic would focus in anticipation of a different spell, and most likely fail, and if he was not focused on what the spell should do, the magic would be released without a purpose, so it wouldn't work.

Only one who had mastered the spell would be able to forego first the said words and then the movements and cast it with intent alone, focussing on both, the magic and the intent at the same time.

Did that mean he had mastered the levitation spell?

There where no references for casting spells without a wand, which annoyed him to no end.

He knew already that his books offered only a very limited view on magic, after all they where written to be understood by eleven year old first years who had never done magic before, however he wanted to know more.

How did it work, where did it come from? What else could you do with it?

What about the other things he could do with magic? He had already noticed that these magic people where seemingly immune to his mind reading, he only sometimes got a flash at what someone was feeling in general. For example when he looked the goblins in the eye he could feel their anticipation about his answer, or when some man walked up to him and tried to sell him a supposedly enchanted trunk that was enhanced on the inside so he could walk in, he knew the man was trying to cheat him.

He made up his mind and went down for dinner. The next day he would be shopping again.

* * *

He woke up early. After eating his breakfast he asked the wife of the innkeeper, who introduced herself as Mary-Jane Stevens, if magically enhanced trunks really existed and where he could get one.

Apparently there was a shop in the Wood Ally three streets down, where the carpenters had their workplace.

Walking into the shop he was met by an old, eager looking man.

"Ah, welcome to 'The Treasure Chest', I'm John Carpenter and you are my first customer today. What can I do for you? A magical school trunk maybe, or a cupboard for your clothes, or are you perhaps looking for something bigger?"

During the talk the man slowly came closer until he almost touched Harry, who was still shivering with the thought of his old cupboard, with an expectant look on his face.

"Er, I'm looking for a school trunk however I plan to buy quite a few books so I'm looking for something a little bigger"

The old man watched Harry appraisingly before taking him to one side of the shop where a few middle sized trunks where standing and answered:

"Here we have our typical school trunks. The basic model is not enhanced in the inside, however you can bind it to you so only you can move or open it. It also has a built in feather light and shrinking charm, you only have to put your hand on the closed trunk and say 'pack' and it will shrink down to a manageable size. 'Unpack' will bring it to normal size it again."

He demonstrated it with one of the trunks. The trunk, formerly almost two feet in every direction scaled down to the size of a matchbox that only weighted maybe a quarter pound.

"I like the features, however I'm looking for something a little… bigger"

"Well then, let's look around. Here we have an excellent model. This trunk here has three compartments. If you open the lid you have your ordinary, if a little space enhanced trunk where you can put in your school supplies like your cauldron and such, but if you close the lid and open one of the two drawers on the side, you can put in your clothes.

The drawers are also bigger on the inside than on the outside, so you have plenty of space, for only a hundred Galleons."

Harry thought about it. He liked the trunk, however it seemed impractical for his books.

"Yesterday when I walked down in Diagon Ally someone tried to sell me a trunk where you could walk into, with a really enhanced space. Do you –"

"NO, I hope you didn't buy that vile thing. Space enhancements like that are unstable in a moveable object. You could use the trunk as long as you didn't carry it around, because if you tried to move a space so heavily enhanced filled with objects, the enchantment would break and all your things inside would be destroyed.

Just think about it, if we had trunks where people could walk into, it wouldn't be long before someone would set up his living quarters in his trunk, and who would still live in an expensive house when you could carry your home around with you.

Every year we get a few delusional idiots who try to get it to work, only to blow themselves up when the enchantment breaks."

Harry stopped listening to the shopkeepers rant and gave a disappointed sigh.

"And here I hoped I would find something useful to keep my books in it…"

The old man went quiet and looked over Harry once more.

"I may have something like that, however it would be… expensive…"

"How costly is expensive?"

"A thousand Galleons at least, depending on the model"

Harry gulped and looked up at the man once more. "Show me"

The two of them walked to the back of the shop where Mr. Carpenter kept his special wares.

"This trunk here is one of my masterpieces: a library trunk. When you open it, you can put your books into it like with a normal trunk, however here the books get shrunk and sent into an especially enchanted space where they will be kept until you summon them out again.

Here look, I put two books in, close the trunk, open it again and the books are gone.

If you want to have your books again you have to touch the trunk and think about the book you want, for example 'A Carpenters Guide'", the book with the same title appeared again, "or you think about what genre the book is, like 'food'", the other book with the title '100 Ways To Cook With Magic' appeared.

"This trunk is the smallest of its kind and can hold up to a thousand books. For a thousand Galleons it could be yours."

Harry was lost in his thoughts again. That was exactly what he was looking for, however a thousand Galleons was a lot of money.

"This library trunk, it has the same basic enchantments like the others you showed me?"

The shopkeeper nodded.

"And only I will be able to open and move them, no one else can look into it?"

"Not without your permission. Once the trunk is keyed to you, only you decide what to do with it. The security is not unbeatable, however it would take even an accomplished curse breaker a while to get into it."

"…"

"I will pay you a thousand galleons for BOTH, the three compartment chest you showed me before, and this library trunk."

"A thousand and fifty, and I will add a little leather bag where you can put in your shrunk trunks in when moving them."

Harry accepted and pulled out his money bag to pay the shopkeeper.

Together they went and packed up his two trunks after Mr. Carpenter showed Harry how to key the trunks to him and how to allow others access to it.

After leaving he made his way back to the main ally looking for the bookstore where he had gotten his first year books.

* * *

Harry spent almost all of his morning in 'Flourish and Blotts', the biggest bookstore in Diagon Ally. After buying books that went father into the theory of magic, especially transfiguration, charms and defence, he looked around for books on other things that might interested him.

He finally arrived back his room at two pm and after eating lunch in the garden he started studying for real.

During the next few days Harry read though all of his first year books, and even if he didn't understand everything, he thought he had managed to learn the most important things.

Potions was one of the subjects he couldn't practice at all since the smell and fumes of the potions would attract attention and he didn't think it would go well if he blew up a cauldron by accident like the warnings in the book said that could happen if he made a mistake.

Charms he found the easiest to practise, after all everything he knew about magic from before could be done with charms. In fact, after some intense practise he was able to do almost every charm in the first year book without words and wand movement.

Transfiguration was another subject that came easy to him, after all the most important thing about it was to focus very hard on the outcome you wanted to have and the intent to make it happen, both things he had already practised when he learnt his wandless levitation.

After he finished with the first year textbook he was even able to transfigure a matchstick to a needle without a wand in less than ten seconds, something he had failed miserably only days before. Defence against the Dark Arts was a joke. The only useful thing they would learn in the first year was the disarming charm 'Expelliarmus', the rest were little things like the stinging hex or the tripping jinks, nothing that he could imagine would help someone to defend oneself.

Astronomy and Herbology where both boring as hell, however he found an interesting Herbology book that described the effects one ingredient could have on others that would help him to understand why one potion worked as it did.

Between studying his first year books he looked up other interesting facts.

For example in a book called 'The Pure and the Rest' the author explained why Purebloods where so much better than everyone else. Of course Harry didn't believe that for one second, however in between the propaganda he found interesting laws mentioned that where only applied to Purebloods and no one else.

Apparently time stopped in the Wizarding World some hundreds of years ago, and it was still legal to duel or marry of children without their consent. As the last heir of the 'Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter' many of those obscure laws would applied to him as well, and once he had his Lordship he would hold a heritable seat in the Wizarding Government, something Muggleborns had no chance of ever archiving, no matter how smart or powerful they where. The only way it would be possible for them was through marriage, and even then they would be considered far beneath the rest of the 'noble Purebloods'.

What shocked him most, however, was what he read in a book called 'Powers Ordinary People Could Only Dream Of'.

It described for example wandless magic as something only the oldest and most powerful wizards were capable of. Or his facial transformation was called metamorphmagic and was apparently a very rare born ability. He read that he was only a partial Metamorphmagus, however even that was only present in maybe one out of five thousand Wizards or Witches.

His mind reading was called Legilimency and while very difficult it could be learned by everyone. The only defence against it was something called Occlumency, and he swore to himself that he would learn that as soon as possible.

What worried him most was his ability to speak to snakes. That, apparently was something called Parseltonque and known as the 'Mark of a Dark Wizard', because it was incredibly rare and someone called Salazar Slytherin and the man who killed his parents, Voldemord could both do it.

Another ability he was very interested in was something called Animagic, the ability to transform into the animal that your magic chose for you. Every Witch or Wizard had one possible Animagi-form that could not be chosen but was chosen for oneself by ones magic. However it was said that it would be very difficult and dangerous to learn, and you had to be very good at transfiguration or you could kill yourself in the process, meaning something that had to wait for another few years.

When he finished that book he knew that he would have to hide most of his powers from others. While people finding out about his wandless abilities might give him some respect, it would probably dangerous to be in the spotlight again, before he could defend himself from angry ex-Death Eaters, and if became public knowledge that he was a Parselmouth he would be stamped of as another dark wizard, no matter what he did.

His metamorphmagi gave him some sense of anonymity and therefore security and had to be kept secret too.

Over a week later he was on his way to the infamous Knockturn Ally. He had searched everywhere else for a book on Occlumency, and while he had found a book on the theory of magic that explained in vague terms how wandless magic was supposed to work, he was still looking for a better guide.

According to the book, there were three kinds of magic: one where you focused inward, and caused a change in yourself, like metamorphmagic, one where you focused on an object and caused some sort of instant effect, like levitation and transfigurations, and the last one where you focused on the effect a spell should cause, and shot the spell in form of an 'magic energy ray' that had to hit something in order to effect it, like the disarming charm.

Apparently, wandless magic worked solely with intent and power, and while it was easily (which meant insanely difficult for your normal everyday person) possible to cast the first two kinds of magics without a wand, it was almost impossible for the third kind, which included some charms, curses, jinks and hexes because they could affect you as well when the touched you, which they always did when they left your hand. That could cause crippling and even death if it went wrong, because for example a wandless blasting curse would blast your own hand off, if you made even the slightest mistake, so trying to learn that kind of wandless magic was considered suicidal.

Because the very core of wandless magic was to concentrate, focus and will something to happen, Occlumency was considered a requirement for it to work with more powerful spells, however books on Occlumency were among the restricted material and illegal to sell to not authorised people, which bothered him to no end.

* * *

Knockturn Ally was where the darker wizards were rumoured to hang out. Crime and murder was something of normality here, and people were rumoured to disappear and end up as snack for a vampire or worse.

However Knockturn Ally was also the place where you could get anything you wanted, no matter the restrictions or laws of the ministry.

On the entrance to the Ally Harry put up the black hood of his jacket he wore underneath his black robes and focused some power into his eyes. Normally he did that when he needed to see in the dark, however when he practised it he noticed that his eyes seemed to glow in a dangerous looking green light.

All in all he looked rather scary, which was of course the intended effect.

With secure steps he made his way toward a bookstore he had heard from one of the shadier people he had asked about Occlumency. It was still morning and quiet in the ally, with the occasional drunk lying on the street moaning in his sleep.

Finally he saw it a sign spelling 'Ancient Knowledge' and walked into the shabby looking shop.

Inside it didn't look any better than on the outside. Books where lying around everywhere and you could see so much dust in the air it was almost hard to breathe.

He headed toward the counter and looked around for the shopkeeper, when a voice spoke from behind "What can I do for you, young man?"

Harry forced himself not to flinch and jump around, but turned slowly toward and ancient looking woman sitting on a chair, watching him with a book in her hand.

"I am looking for books on Occlumency. I heard you provide any knowledge for the right price, and I am paying well."

"Now why would one as young as you need to protect his mind? What secrets would you know that you want to keep to yourself?"

"That's none of your business, I am not paying for questions but answers!"

"Ah, answers, don't we seek them all? But without the question you can never find the right answer, so tell me again. Why should I sell a rare book on a restricted art to a little boy who would likely never understand what knowledge he holds in his hands?"

'Little boy! I'll show her a little boy' Harry was getting angry and frustrated. Angry that he once again was dismissed because of his age, and frustrated that he had no way of proving her wrong without giving up one of his secrets.

'Oh well, she doesn't know who I am anyway, so what should it matter?'

He pointed his at the woman and summoned the book she was holding into his hand.

"It's possible that I will not understand right away, however there is little I can not do if I put my mind to it."

The old woman looked from her empty hands to the book Harry was holding, noticing that he had not drawn his wand, before cracking a small smile. "Perhaps you are not that stupid after all? Well, follow me."

She stood up from her chair, walked up to Harry and held out her hand.

It took him a few seconds to realize what she wanted before he gave the book he summoned back and followed her to a desk leading on the wall where a few particularly big stacks of books stood. There she started to rummage around until she pulled out a small book, only half an inch thick at best, and shoved it into his hands.

It was titled "The Guide To Your Mind".

"That will be fifty Galleons and I will not sell you anything else until you can prove to me that you understand what you read. I don't like wasting my knowledge on idiots, so take care not to come back beforehand."

Harry pulled out the money from his bag and pocketed the book.

Without a word he left the shop. Before the door closed he heard behind him "Take care young Potter" and froze.

How had she…, no… that couldn't be? Apparently she somehow DID read his mind without him knowing, there was no other way she could have found out. Now him proving to her that he understood the book had a whole new ring to it.

Well, there was nothing he could do about her knowing of his identity, he only hoped he old crone had other things to do than spread stories.

Determined to read the book immediately he strode back to his room.

* * *

"James, what are you running away from this time?"

"I told you already, I'm not running away form anything!"

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, I am also sometimes startled by my shadow, however I usually only jump around until I see it was nothing. Yours must be really scary, if you are running for half an hour and still can't get away."

Harry scowled at the little girl standing a few feet away. "I think I told you a hundred tines already that I'm not running away from anything."

"Well I can see how you can't get away from it, after all you are running CIRCLES."

"…, whatever. What's for breakfast today?"

"Oh, the usual for Monday, pancakes with raspberry syrup."

"Ok, I'm off to the shower. See you later at breakfast."

Harry walked up to his room to use his shower.

Since he was used to his typical morning routine that consisted of running, exercises and a little wandless magic practise, he had asked the innkeeper if he was allowed to run circles around the garden behind the pub, who had allowed him to run as much as he wanted as long as he didn't do it during business hours.

Lira Stubbins, the innkeeper's eight year old daughter had taken to watching him in the morning, usually making fun of him for waking up so soon in the morning only to run until he was tired again.

Harry thought that she was annoying, however she was also interesting to be around, when she was not currently in a nagging phase complaining that he was doing far too much reading.

Sometimes, when he was getting a headache and couldn't concentrate anymore because he was reading and practising for six hours without pause, she was a welcome distraction to help him clear his mind and add a little variation to his daily schedule.

She also told him a lot of stories about the wizarding world, things her parents told her, that were usually common knowledge among the people born into the magical world.

In return he sometimes brought her little presents from his shopping trips into Diagon ally, when he was looking for another book to explain the latest problem he had trouble understanding from his first year textbooks.

After almost three weeks of living here, she was pretty much the only one he regularly talked to, generally keeping to himself most of the day.

Stepping out of the shower he reviewed what he had read in the occlumency book the day before:

_To protect your mind against an invasion of foreign magic, be it potions, spells and curses that are supposed to affect the mind or attacks of a legilimens, one has to learn the art of occlumency.  
Occlumency is a discipline of the mind that is most difficult to learn, however it gives you a significant advantage over one who does not know the art.  
A skilled occlumens can lie to your face without you ever knowing, he can throw off the effects of a love potions as easily as that of a truth potion, and it becomes almost impossible to affect the mind using magic.  
This is one of the reasons, basic knowledge of occlumency is required if you want to become a member of the law enforcement__, and restricted to everyone else.  
Basic knowledge implies that the occlumens is good enough to detect a mind altering agent or magic if it is directed at him or her, and sadly this is the highest level most occlumens reach, because anything further requires an exceptional self control and innate talent.  
First there is to know that every magic that affects the mind targets the subconscious mind, and from there the conscious mind will be affected.  
There are two different ways that are commonly used to affect the mind:  
The first is the direct way. A wizard can use a spell like the imperio curse to break through mental shields and directly command the mind of the victim.  
The second way is more subtle. Through the use of potions for example the mind can be affected from within, to shed inhibitions and self control.  
A skilled legilimens uses eye contact to break into the mind of the caster, and once he has successfully broken through the shields he can read present thoughts and use compulsions to force the victim to remember thoughts or memories that the legilimens can then read like a book.  
To protect oneself against both forms of attack a skilled occlumens must learn two ways to defend himself.  
To defend oneself against direct control one must learn to build shields around his subconscious mind.  
The shields will act as sentries and delay mechanism, to alert the occlumens of an attack and delay or defend against the magic.  
While it is relatively easy to raise shields around the mind, it is equally easy to break said shields down, and only a wizard or witch with exceptional power and will power can completely shield against aggressive magic, most everyone can only detect for example a legilimency attack and delay the spell long enough to avert the eyes.  
However because the shields themselves are outside of the mind, they contribute nothing to help against subtle __magic's, and once the shield is broken, the occlumens is virtually defenceless. This is where the second way, more often called the true occlumency comes into effect.  
A true occlumens can discipline his mind to a point where he can control his thoughts completely. To do that, one has to learn complete self control, something that is almost entirely based on ones willpower.  
Very few ever master this art, those who do however gain huge advantages over everyone else. There are o course many misconceptions about how it is done.  
True o__cclumency is an art that controls only present thoughts through meditation, practise and discipline. One does not gain perfect recall or has to order his memories, because only the present matters.  
A true occlumens can withstand truth potions, ignore memory or compulsion spells and render the best legilimens useless, simply because he is able to suppress the minds response to such magic. He can__ consciously remove his subconscious mind from all of his feelings, and ignore for example guilt, anger, love or hate, becoming completely emotionless at will.  
Also the ability to focus on something with ones whole mind to solve difficult problems, or work delicate magic's that would be __very difficult and easily disturbed, if one was distracted by a stray thought every few seconds, becomes possible.  
As such, true occlumency is almost a requirement to learn wandless magic, because the caster__, without the focus a wand provides, has to concentrate completely on the task at hand to make it work properly without loosing control over the magic.  
True __occlumency strains the mind as it is working in ways the human mind was not intended for, which makes it impossible to continuously use it throughout the day, limiting its use to hours at a time, with an equal amount of recovery time in between.  
As such, to completely protect ones mind, an occlumens erects shields that will warn him of an intrusion before he switches on his discipline to prevent the attacking magic from working in case the shields break…_

Harry let out a sigh.

As impossible as it sounded, he was further by far in learning true occlumency than shielding his mind.

After all, he had been working on it for years, hiding his true self from everyone, suppressing his feelings to control his magic, focusing them to learn to control his 'powers'.

Shielding his mind on the other hand was a concept foreign to him. Moreover he first had to find his mind, meditating until he became conscious of his subconscious, and that took time. Time he didn't have because his school would start in a little over a week.

Hearing his stomach growl he pushed the thoughts aside, walking down for breakfast.

* * *

It was a sunny September first when Harry walked out of the pub in the morning, all his belongings in the shrunk trunks he carried with him.

The goodbye was draining, with Lira crying because she lost her new friends and he had to promise that he would send letters and come to visit next time he was back in Diagon Ally, much to the amusement of her parents, who wished him good luck with his studies and told him not to learn to much, for he was a child and children should play with their friends, much to his annoyance.

They knew he was an orphan without a home, so they offered to keep open 'his' room next summer for a cheaper rent, if he wanted to stay with them again, something he much appreciated.

Walking out of the Leaky Cauldron he summoned a muggle taxi and told the driver to take him to King's Cross Station, where he paid the taxi with his last bit of muggle money.

Standing on the platform between tracks nine and ten he thought about what he had learnt the last month.

He had managed to cast every spell in his first year textbooks, and while he still had problems to understand some parts of the theory, he had a far better understanding than required in others, because he reviewed the relevant texts in other, more advanced books.

Charms and transfigurations were especially easy and he could do most spells nonverbally and some without wand movements or even without a wand.

On the other hand he had no way of practising for potions and herbology so he learnt extra hard in order to avoid mistakes in class.

In defence he studied and cast the required spells, however he had no way of knowing if they worked as they should, because he wasn't about to hex himself without being sure that he wouldn't accidentally blow himself up.

History and astronomy where the subjects that interested him the least, so he avoided them for now as they had no practical use he knew of and he had enough work with the others.

In his occlumency practise he finally managed to access his subconscious mind. It looked like a glowing ball of energy floating in a big seemingly unending space without walls or bottom, and he had managed to strengthen his natural occlumency shield every magical being had, with an extra layer, that, while it seemed weak even to him, was better than nothing at all.

Hedwig, his owl, was sitting in her cage, complaining about being locked in for the first time since he got her, and hooting angrily every time someone bumped into him or the cage.

Finally he saw the barrier Mr. Stubbins told him about.

A big family of redheads was just walking through and he wondered how nobody seemed to notice people vanishing through solid barriers.

Taking a deep breath, collecting his thoughts he walked up to the barrier and stepped through.

* * *

AN: That's it, Harry's pre-Hogwarts time is officially over.  
Some will notice that Harry is (of course) suspicious of everyone and dislikes Dumbledore because of what he found out at Gringotts, however this will not be a bash-story, and while Dumbledore will definitely a little manipulating, he will not be especially concerned with Harry as the prophesy doesn't exist in this story.  
Next Chapter will cover the time until (including) Halloween, and hopefully break up this monotone 'Harry studies alone and everyone else can screw themselves'-kind of story path.  
The problem I have when writing the story is that, while I have already most important plots and conclusions thought through and I know what I want to happen in time, I lack some of the necessary imagination to bring a little feeling into the story, with little side plots, conversations and fun that is designed to loosen up the audience in between.  
Every time I read through what I wrote up to this point I get the feeling that this is just a boring recollection of facts with little in between, and I hope that will change with the next chapter, now that I have more characters to work with ;-)  
I also had some problems to find time to write at all, however I think I'll be able to update once a week, give or take a few days. So write me what you think, and have fun until the next time.


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